DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0335
AND LOWER EGYPT. 305
attributed to Saint Louis, at the time of the cru-
sades, is almost entirely demolished ; it mounted
still some pieces of cannon, but totally unfit for
service. Monuments far more ancient had been
employed in building it; several stones were to be
still seen there, ornamented with hieroglyphics. I
had drawings taken of some of these antique stones,
and dispatched them to the minister Bertin, with
several others of whose fate lam equally ignorant.
The date-trees are very greatly multiplied in all
these countries. Several kinds of birds perch on
their long foliage, whilst others hop, from branch
to branch, in the thick hedges of the enclosures.
I killed that day houhous, lapwings, turtle-doves,
and a cheveche.
The first of these birds, although very common
in the environs of Rossetta, and, as I have been
informed, in tho?e of Damietta, was not known
to naturalists previous to my journey into Egypt.
I sent descriptions of them, with notes, to Buf-
fon; and his ingenious fellow-labourer, Guenau
de Montbeillard, has published them in the Natu-
ral History of Birds, article of Cnchouhou of Egypt.
Although this little discovery in ornithology be
my property, I will not repeat the details of it
here, the work of Buffon being in the possession
of every body. The little which I am going to
vol. r. x add,
attributed to Saint Louis, at the time of the cru-
sades, is almost entirely demolished ; it mounted
still some pieces of cannon, but totally unfit for
service. Monuments far more ancient had been
employed in building it; several stones were to be
still seen there, ornamented with hieroglyphics. I
had drawings taken of some of these antique stones,
and dispatched them to the minister Bertin, with
several others of whose fate lam equally ignorant.
The date-trees are very greatly multiplied in all
these countries. Several kinds of birds perch on
their long foliage, whilst others hop, from branch
to branch, in the thick hedges of the enclosures.
I killed that day houhous, lapwings, turtle-doves,
and a cheveche.
The first of these birds, although very common
in the environs of Rossetta, and, as I have been
informed, in tho?e of Damietta, was not known
to naturalists previous to my journey into Egypt.
I sent descriptions of them, with notes, to Buf-
fon; and his ingenious fellow-labourer, Guenau
de Montbeillard, has published them in the Natu-
ral History of Birds, article of Cnchouhou of Egypt.
Although this little discovery in ornithology be
my property, I will not repeat the details of it
here, the work of Buffon being in the possession
of every body. The little which I am going to
vol. r. x add,